'Life....

...is a long preparation for something that never happens.' - W.B.Yeats

And for me the current thing that isn't happening is the War of the Spanish Succession. "Why so?" I hear you ask "A long standing interest of yours perhaps?".

Well no. Actually, until about 18 months ago I knew very little about it and cared less. And now that I have read Duffy, Chandler, Kemp et al I have to say that it still doesn't do much for me. To start with there's the uniforms: dull, dull, dull. Then there's the tactics: even duller. And all those sieges: ahh, actually I quite like the sieges - Vauban, Coehorn, bastions, parallels, zigzags, batteries, scarps and counterscarps . But that just makes it worse because how does one replicate all that engineering on the tabletop? And, if one can't then how frustrating is that? Is it as annoying as a blogger who can't do anything but ask rhetorical questions? Who can say?